Astros’ Lyon succeeds where few pitchers do — Coors Field

Brandon Lyon pitched a scoreless inning in both ends of Monday’s doubleheader. Even more head-turning than his streak of 12 1⁄3 scoreless innings is his continued success at Coors Field. Lyon has a 0.78 ERA in his first 24 career appearances (two earned runs in 23 innings). That’s the lowest ERA of any pitcher who has worked at least 20 innings at Coors, nearly a run better than the next best (1.66, Jose Contreras.)

“I kind of approach it the same I would any other game: Try to make good pitches and not make any mistakes,” Lyon said. “Sometimes you don’t do that, but I can’t say there’s any different way to try and pitch here.”

Strong combo up the middle

Through Tuesday’s games, Jose Altuve ranked first in the National League – and fifth in the majors – among second basemen in FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement (1.6). His double-play partner, Jed Lowrie, ranks second among NL shortstops and third in the majors by the WAR metric (2.1). Lowrie ranks 14th overall among NL position players, Altuve 21st.

By numbers if not reputation, they would be legitimate All-Star candidates if they can continue that sort of performance for another month.

“If you look into how consistent those two guys who have been this whole first half, they need to have some consideration,” Astros manager Brad Mills said. There’s absolutely no doubt.”

Cosart punished

Corpus Christi (Class AA) righthander Jarred Cosart, one of the cornerstones in the trade that sent Hunter Pence to Philadelphia, got scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday because of what manager Keith Bodie characterized as “not conforming to organizational policy.”